"These United States"

"THESE UNITED STATES" 16th Annual Masque of the Yellow Moon

MAY is the month of the Yellow Moon, so the Indian legend goes. And so, on May 2nd comes one of the outstanding events in all Arizona, an event which ranks with the annual Fiesta del Sol, the Smoki ceremonials, the Hopi snake dances, the rodeos, and other nationally famous festivals the Masque of the Yellow Moon in Phoenix. This gigantic pageant which through the 15 years of its annual production has won national and international acclaim as one of the finest things of its kind will, in its 16th production, glorify "These United States."

Unique among pageants, the Masque of the Yellow Moon is produced under the general direction of Cordelia McLain Perkins, head of the Fine Arts department of the Phoenix High Schools. Hers is the conception, hers is the working genius which has made the event what it is.

Cooperating in the Masque are the whole student bodies and faculties of four institutions of learning in Phoenix Phoenix Union High school, parent organization of the four, North Phoenix High school, Phoenix Junior college and the Arizona Vocational school.

Each organization plays an equally important part in making for the success of the whole, which is sponsored by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.

And the most remarkable thing about the whole production is that the gigantic pageant is rehearsed, costumed, built almost wholly in regular class time as part and parcel of the school's regular activities.

Almost no time is given after regular school hours by either students or faculty. There is only one rehearsal of the complete cast.

But we'd better give you a more complete picture of the intricacies of this gigantic production.

The Masque of the Yellow Moon, annual pageant of Phoenix High Schools and Junior college, is an ambitious dramatic spectacle, the result of work and preparation.

By Dorothy Challis Mott

Roughly speaking, during the 15 years of life there have been some 22,200 high school students in costume for the 15 one-night performances. These figures are round numbers because it would be extremely difficult to come to an accurate total. But we arrive at them this wayFor the past several years, four or five at least, there have been more than 2,500 students each year in costume. Prior to that, there were less, but not many less. So we compromised with ourselves and said an average of 1,500 a year for the 15 yearshence the 22,200. The high school stadium in Phoenix holds 10,500 people. For the last three years, more than 11,000 have crowded into it to see the pageant. So, we'll make a guess that some 100,000 people or more have seen the pageant up to this year. But let's start at the beginning and find out how it gets where it is going. The first pageant was the conception of Sharlot Hall, that grand little old lady of Governor's Mansion in Prescott who wrote the script for the "Masque of the Yellow Moon." It was produced under the auspices of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and was staged in the Shrine auditorium. The year was 1926. In 1927, Phoenix Union High school, and Cordelia Perkins produced the second Masque of the Yellow Moon, sponsored by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. The script was written by Ida McDaniels, head of the foreign language department of the school, and Ellen Nitzkowski, instructor in the history department. It was staged on the west field of the stadium, and its theme was "Hamaika de las Flores." Neil Estes Cook, head of the English department of the Phoenix Junior college, More than 2,500 students appear in costume for the annual Masque presentations. Eleven thousand people crowd the High School Stadium each year for the show.

authored the 1928 pageant, "Apache Land" whose central figure was the historical Charles Poston. This year set a pattern which has never been broken. Mrs. Perkins conceived the idea behind the pageant. Mr. Cook writes the script, and Miss McDaniels writes the poetic prologues and epilogues. Down through the years the historic figures of Cortez, Coronado, Fray Marcos de Niza, George Washington, and others, have paraded across the pageant stage. And the legends of Camelback mountain, the mythical thunderbird, wonder water, have been retold.

Roads to the Organ Pipes

Visitors to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the finest stretch of arboreal desert in the United States, may now come to within four miles of the entrance without leaving pavement. Eastbound travel on Highway U. S. 80 from California via Yuma turns south at Gila Bend to Ajo which provides excellent hotel and restaurant facilities. Eleven miles southeast of Ajo on the Ajo-Tucson Highway is the junction with the entrance road to the monument. This road, graveled but ungraded, crosses the monument to the International Boundary line where ports-of-entry of both Mexico and the United States are located. From its junction with the Ajo-Tucson Highway it is four and one half miles to the monument boundary, then 28 miles to the International Line. The road continues south four miles to Sonoyta, Mexico.

Aside from the previously mentioned road across the monument, there is no access to the area except by unmaintained and unmarked desert roads, little more than trails, used by Indians, prospectors, and cattlemen. One such route leads southwest from Ajo via Bates Well to Quitobaquito. From Quitobaquito connection may be made with the section of the Santa Ana-Tiajuana road, in Mexico, connecting Sonoyta with San Luis, near the Colorado River south of Yuma. Another route, following the general line of the old Camino del Diablo, from Wellton on Highway U. S. 80 crosses the Tule Desert and Cabeza Prieta Refuge via Tule Tank, Oneil Pass, and Papago Well to the old Growler Mine in the monument where it meets the Ajo-Quitobaquito road. Only persons thoroughly familiar with desert roads and well equipped to meet the uncertainties of this type of travel should attempt any of these routes.

California bound travel on U. S. 80 may take the Ajo-Tucson graded and graveled route by which it is approximately 130 miles from Tucson to the monument entrance. They join U. S. 80 at Gila Bend.

Bill stared into the flames of the campfire as if he could see the harvest fires of the Papagos, surrounded by the shadowy forms of the celebrants. "Perhaps the people are right," he mused, "the ones who see nothing in the desert and its vegetation but something to plow under so that the farmers, and the cattlemen, and the miners can grow more crops, or graze more cattle, or take out more ore. But when this desert is gone, as much of it inevitably will go, believe it or not, the great Southwest will have lost one of its major attractions. That's why this national monument means a lot more to the people of the United States than most of us realize today. It means that we can protect this part of the desert, and keep it in its natural state, and encourage rather than persecute its wildlife while the rest of the desert is gradually being turned under by the plow or tramped under by the hoofs of cattle. Then people will really appreciate it, and they can come here, generation after generation, and see these strange plants and animals in their natural surroundings. Each summer the Papagos will harvest the fruits of the Organ Pipes just as they always have, and can practice their traditions established so long ago. If we cannot or do not protect this and other areas, the Desert Bighorn, the Senita, the Javalinas, the Burro Deer, and the dances of the Papagos; all of these things and many others that the people of the Southwest now take for granted, will someday be only memories, or strange tales and pictures in the history books of the future, just as the passenger pigeon and the heath hen remain only in books or as sad stuffed specimens in museums today.

"I see your point, Bill," I agreed, "but it seems to me that there is one bad inconsistency in your reasoning. In one breath you advocate protecting this wonderful section of the desert, and I enthusiastically agree that it is wonderful; and in the next sentence you say that it is being protected so that generation after generation of people may come here to enjoy it.' Now, how can you hope to protect it and at the same time build the necessary roads and other facilities so that people can visit it? It seems to me that protection, as you advocate it, automatically excludes people; yet unless the people can come here to see and enjoy it, what is the use of protecting it?"

"Right there you have hit upon one of the major problems of recreational conservation," Bill agreed nodding. "In order to solve the problem of 'protection versus use,' we must inject the word 'intelligent.' Intelligent use of any national park or monument requires that the people, as well as the officials who administer and care for it, must exercise every possible means of preserving the natural relationships within the area. Development of roads and other facilities must be restricted to a minimum. There shall be no dance halls, swimming pools, merry-go-rounds, race tracks and similar 'attractions' which are commonly associated in the public mind with vacation centers. People who desire that form of recreation may find it in abundance elsewhere. Great preserves of the primitive out-of-doors such as this area of desert have been set aside for persons who want rest, relaxation, and inspiration; the 'get away from it all' kind of rest so necessary to relieve the pressure of our nerve-wracking modern commercial life, and especially important during periods of national and international stress and tension such as these. Relaxation, rest, and enjoyment of plants and animals and scenery are not consistent with fast driving, so such roads as are constructed may be built to conform with the topography, hence may be laid out so that they do a minimum of damage to the balance of Nature. Thus, if use of an area such as this is intelligently controlled, there is no conflict between protection and use. Is that clear?"

"Yes," I agreed, "but it will require years of untiring effort to educate the public to the type of use for which these areas are preserved, but they are certainly a Godsend to those of us who want to get away from the Coney Island type of vacation and out into the unspoiled wide-open spaces which are so rapidly being swallowed up by the advance of our so-called civilization. Now, about these roads. I thought that there was to be a fast highway through the monument into Mexico." "That's right," Bill agreed, "there will be one through the monument which will be in the nature of a fast highway. However, it will be so located that it will interfere as little as possible with the natural balance of the desert, and it will pass through only the buffer portion of the monument and not through the real heart of the reserve. This is the road, whose construction is now pending, which will bear the fast traffic from the Tucson-Ajo Highway, through the monument, and across the border, via Sonoyta, to Rocky Point on the Gulf of California. This highway has the potentialities of being one of the most popular roads entering Mexico from the United States because it will give the whole arid Southwest access to the fine big game fishing of the Gulf only a little more than an hour's drive from the border. There will be plenty of people who are more interested in a fishing trip over the week-end than in getting rest and relaxation in the quiet fastnesses of the desert. This road will be built for the fishermen. However, all the rest of the road development in the monument (and there will be as little of it as is required to make the principal features of the area accessible) will be for the leisurely traveler who has both the time and a genuine interest in to the type of use for which these areas are preserved, but they are certainly a Godsend to those of us who want to get away from the Coney Island type of vacation and out into the unspoiled wide-open spaces which are so rapidly being swallowed up by the advance of our so-called civilization. Now, about these roads. I thought that there was to be a fast highway through the monument into Mexico." "That's right," Bill agreed, "there will be one through the monument which will be in the nature of a fast highway. However, it will be so located that it will interfere as little as possible with the natural balance of the desert, and it will pass through only the buffer portion of the monument and not through the real heart of the reserve. This is the road, whose construction is now pending, which will bear the fast traffic from the Tucson-Ajo Highway, through the monument, and across the border, via Sonoyta, to Rocky Point on the Gulf of California. This highway has the potentialities of being one of the most popular roads entering Mexico from the United States because it will give the whole arid Southwest access to the fine big game fishing of the Gulf only a little more than an hour's drive from the border. There will be plenty of people who are more interested in a fishing trip over the week-end than in getting rest and relaxation in the quiet fastnesses of the desert. This road will be built for the fishermen. However, all the rest of the road development in the monument (and there will be as little of it as is required to make the principal features of the area accessible) will be for the leisurely traveler who has both the time and a genuine interest in "I'm beginning to resent all the people that are going to swarm into this country, once they discover it, because I feel as if I'd just discovered it myself. What's chance of getting a job as Assistant Godfather of the Organ Pipes?"

Douglas Rodeo

(Continued from Page 29) Fashioned garb and the western and old time dances predominate. The huge armory building is converted for the time being into a page in a book which might have been torn out of a chapter of the "80's", so realistically is the entire thing carried out in every detail. The Douglas Rodeo celebration would not be what it is were it not for the two mile long parade, featuring every conceivable kind of contraption which the old timer used for transportation purposes. There are ore wagons, buggies, burro-drawn carts and what have you. There are cowboys, many sheriff's posses, attired in regulation uniforms, grizzled prospectors and miners; and boys and girls who present some of the most unique costumes. The ladies outdo themselves in their display of the old fashioned dresses and bonnets. And, in keeping with tradition, no motor drawn vehicles are permitted. For the rodeo parade is something distinctly representing the past and nothing resembling the present is permitted. An important feature of the annual show is the Livestock Show and agricultural fair which is held all the days and nights during rodeo time. Plans provide for a new building to house the growing number of agricultural exhibits in which the farmers and ranchers of the area take an increasingly important part. Many figures well known in the Rodeo world will help make the Douglas show more enjoyable to those who attend. Cy Taillon, one of the best among radio announcers and who handles among others, the annual Fiesta de los Vaqueros at Tucson, will officiate at the microphone; Chet and Juanita Howell, favorites with previous Douglas audiences, will thrill the crowd with their trick and fancy riding; Hugh Bennett, himself a contestant in Southwestern rodeos, has been engaged as Arena Director; negotiations are pending for the clown who is always an important figure in the arena, and it is certain that a well-known favorite will be out there to entertain the crowd. The people of Douglas, anxious to prove their claim of the "Friendly City in the Heart of the Old West" extend a sincere invitation to everyone to attend the "Biggest Little Show in the Southwest" May 910-11, and they warn the world to be ready for lots of fun in the real western manner. The unique attractions which the wide reaches of unspoiled desert afford."

The fire, neglected as we talked, had died down to a pile of glowing coals. A gentle breeze swayed the branches of the Palo Verde, and from up the wash came a stacatto yapping, ending with the high pitched, spine-tingling wail of a coyote on the prowl. A wave of supreme contentment swept over me as Bill, grunting, rose to his feet, stretched his arms wide, and yawned. "Yeah, Bill," I agreed, "I guess you're right; this desert country really gets into your blood before you realize it. Already

ALONG THE GILA

The Gila River starts away up in the mountains in New Mexico, enters Arizona at Duncan in Greenlee county, meanders down the Gila Valley, waters the fertile fields around such places as Safford, Thatcher, Pima, Solomonsville, and then bangs smack up against Coolidge Dam to form San Carlos Lake. After a stop there it enters Pinal County and does yeoman service for the farmers in the Casa Grande Valley. It then swings north around Chandler to Cashion, loafs westward to Hassyampa and Arlington, picks up the Hassyampa, cuts toward Gila Bend and then skeedaddles straight west to Yuma where it is swallowed by the Colorado.

At times it is a harmless stream but when it gets mad it gets mad all over and roars as it races its merry course. Yet, withal, it does a mighty big and valuable job for Arizona.